One of the most exciting times in your career is when you are offered the job you applied for and was also hoping to get. Many times after the excitement settles, you’ll find it’s time to negotiate the salary offer.
This alone can cause extra anxiety, stress, or you might want to avoid the negotiations altogether and accept whatever offer you get, maybe for fear of having the job swept away from you.
You should negotiate your salary offer because you could be leaving thousands of dollars on the table by not simply speaking up. If you have some big financial goals or even certain retirement plans, this can hinder your timeframes.
Below, I’m going to cover a lot about the art of negotiating a salary offer and how to improve your counter offer skills to get what you deserve.
1. Take a step back from the offer
Often, people are excited or become too hasty to make a decision when a job and salary offer happen. However, before doing anything and you are done reading or hearing the offer is to take a step back.
Walk away for a bit, clear your mind and think about what the offer entails and what it means for your career and finances.
Typically, the best option you have is to politely respond back to thank the hiring manager for the offer and request some time to think about. I usually suggest two or three days tops.
But this gives you time to think, research, and start preparing to negotiate salary. You should never be afraid to give a counteroffer, but being prepared will make all the difference in your success rate.
2. Know your salary worth and market value
When you are job searching or preparing for interviews, you should always know your salary worth and market value. Do some research on the averages and then the averages in your local areas as well.
This will help you determine what kind of offer you should get and have evidence to support your salary negotiations.
Use places like Glassdoor and Payscale to find salary info that will help you know where your current experience, skills, and position is worth.
3. Be prepared with your previous successes
When you are going to negotiate your salary offer, you also will need to prove your value.
Besides what the market might be paying for this position, you need to show your successes and achievements.
This can also include any current steps your taking to further improve those skills (like a class, online certification, etc.).
You don’t want to come off as cocky or braggadocios, but this is your chance to prove why you’re asking for the higher salary that you are. Make sure you have a handful of solid achievements and data to back it up.
4. Ask questions
When you first get an offer, you should be asking questions about the compensation they provided. That way, you have all the information you need to make a more informed decision or for your counter offer.
Things to consider asking pending the position would be
- Is this the base salary only?
- When must you have an answer by?
- Is there a sign-on bonus? Or any bonus throughout the year?
- How often is my performance evaluated for potential pay increases?
- What additional benefits do you offer? Like equity, profit sharing, health savings, education reimbursements, etc.
Try to have all your questions aligned in one or two emails or in-person, to eliminate a bunch of back and forth (which can be annoying). But definitely ask questions!
5. Don’t beg or be pushy
You would think this is common sense, yet many job applicants don’t realize how their tone or approach is turnoff in negotiations.
First during this process, you never want to beg for more money. Meaning, don’t complain about your personal finances or debt.
Using that as a leveraging tactic will never work and will only make you come off desperate. Even if you are struggling and are financially stressed, never bring that into salary negotiations.
The same applies with having a pushy or demanding attitude. Regardless of the tone of the hiring manager, keep a positive, yet confident approach. Even if you aren’t getting exactly what you want, keep the atmosphere light and work towards finding a salary compromise.
6. Use other offers for leverage
This might be somewhat job controversial, but it can work if you are approaching this without a smug attitude. When you are job searching, you probably are taking on multiple interviews from other companies.
If you are fortunate to get another job offer or two, you can use this to your favor in the salary negotiation phase. The key is to politely let each company know that you got an offer from, that you have another job offer as well.
Never give them the salaries of these other offers as you are not required too, but this may position the hiring managers to give better offers to attract you. Also, never use these other offers to threaten and try to intimidate, it will only backfire.
7. Consider more than the salary
While negotiating the salary offer is important, you cannot forget other factors of the job that are equally important as the paycheck.
You might only be able to get a bit more money, but what else comes with this new job? How’s the work flexibility, the location, health benefits and 401k, or do they pay for training opportunities?
You should look at total compensation value — meaning everything that is included and negotiate on those pieces as well. For example, maybe ask for extra starting vacation, more equity (if they offer stock options), or a different job title.
And if they offer a lot of perks already, then it may be worth accepting without trying to get more money for now. But remember, most aspects of your potential new job are negotiable.
8. Be prepared to walk away
Sometimes, it does not matter what you do or how you present your case. Companies and hiring managers may have to stick to strict budgets and benefit guidelines that there is no room to negotiate.
It’s an unfortunate part of job hunting. So either you can take the salary offer or walk away from the position. The decision will be on you to make given your current job situation and financial goals. Now if you are considering taking the offer, try to get a compensation review in place for six months or so.
There is no guarantee that the company will follow through, but worth trying to discuss if you need the job or are still excited about the position regardless of the salary negotiation not budging.